My wife had always wanted to be thin – well, since she saw those American dramas. But we have always been poor.

I have sat on this rock for fifty-eight years, like King Canute in reverse. My eyes play tricks on me, but my feet know how far to go. They can’t go so far these days.

My wife is getting thinner. The seals are getting scrawnier. I have to hunt more. I’ve worked all my life and now, because of the Americans and Europeans, everything I have is sinking into the mud.

Soon, the waters will be unleashed to reveal the black liquid gold, waiting for us to harvest. The Americans and Europeans will have to work hard 24/7, trying to stay afloat. And we will be rich.

I read an article by Johann Hari on the Inuit living in Greenland, whose hunting ground is disappearing with climate change, as are the seals they hunt. But under the Arctic ice are large deposits of oil.